Reconciliation with others

Have you hurt someone?  Has someone taken advantage of you recently?

The final chapters of Recovering Redemption by Matt Chandler look at how we seek reconciliation in relationships whether we are the cause or recipient.

The one who pursed us in making peace also desires that we respond to others in kind...by pursuing peace.

Whenever believers are involved in conflict with other people, God remains the authority--not us.

What am I supposed to do, God, when somebody like this is working against me all the time? Well, looks like He's already shown us what He would do: initiate and forgive, engage and reconcile, pursue peace at all costs. Why should it be any different in our case?

One of the marks of Christian maturity is a willingness to absorb and forgive any ugliness or injustice that's tossed in our direction, and to let our desire for retaliation or rebuttal fall peaceably to the ground.

Bitterness is a powder keg. Pay attention to it.

It's not about being right, catching them red-handed, throwing the net of "aha!" justice around their necks, but rather a proactive love that says, "I am not willing for you to live at the mercy of things that devilishly designed to destroy you.

By the grace of God, and by the visible mountain of evidence we've seen, we can say with well-reasoned certainty that most people--when challenged in a humble, loving manner, free of personal agenda and vendetta--will hear, repent, confess, and seek restoration.